means of formal Introductions or Rudiments^ 
the contents of which it is impoflible to re- 
member without examples, and which ex- 
amples it is impoflible to procure in ftudy- 
ing the feveral ClafTes in regular fucceflbn. 
I have no intention, in giving you this 
general introduction to the fcience of Bota- 
ny, to allure you from more important flu- 
dies. You are to regard it as a fcience of 
amufement; but, with this ftrong recom- 
mendation, that it may be acquired without 
ftealing a fmgle hour from your neceflary 
lucubrations. We read of men, who, in 
the fhort fpace of human life, have acquired 
a degree of univerfal knowledge, to which 
one might imagine the age of an antedilu- 
vian would hardly have been fufficient. The 
late illuftrious Profeffor Haller, of the Uni- 
verfity of Gottingen, was a remarkable ex- 
ample of this univerfality. He was a mi- 
nute anatomift, an accurate phyfiologift, an 
indefatigable botanift, a charming poet, a 
claflical fcholar, an univerfal linguift, an 
aftonifhing bibliothecarian, and, in the 
latter part of his life, a moft intelligent 
magiftrate. 
That a man of univerfal erudition was 
p 3 no 
